


The Cry for Help Job

by sunshineforever13



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-22 19:53:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3741562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshineforever13/pseuds/sunshineforever13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set five years after the end of season 5. Eliot, Parker, and Hardison have recruited Tara for their band of thieves, but things haven't been going so well, until a young girl ends up at their door. Can the crew save her? Or will she save them? Sophie and Nate to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything. All is left to the writers and TNT.

This takes place after the end of season 5. Five years from then.

  
  


Eliot sighed. Dammit, Hardison.

The con had been going well. Considering. But Tara wasn’t as good as Sophie, and there was no clear ‘mastermind’ on this team. Everyone sort of made their own part and Parker just made sure that key things got done.

Eliot guessed that Nate was trying to groom Parker to fill his shoes, but in reality, Parker couldn’t communicate like Nate could, and that didn’t make her a better leader than the rest of them.

After Sophie and Nate left five years ago, Hardison’s first move was to get them a new grifter. The three of them were good, but they knew they needed at least one more person to run half the cons they would need to to take down all the groups on the black book.

So they called in Tara.

Granted they didn’t like her that much, and she wasn’t as good and lovely as Sophie, but the three of them sucked it up for ‘the greater good’.

So for these five years the four of them have been trying to get a rhythm. They looked at the black book frequently, but when they tried years ago to take down a name on the list, they almost got killed. Now they are back to square one, trying to get used to not having a leader with good communication skills, and a new grifter that no one seemed to trust fully. They took clients and their little ‘petty’ cons, the type that didn’t require much planning or complex elements, the ones that could be done in a couple of days.

And even though the three of them got a sizable check during one of their first jobs together, the money would become an issue soon.

“Eliot! Go! Now!” Parker’s voice screamed over the coms, bringing him back to reality.

Eliot ran down the end of the hallway, to the planned exit route. As he turned the corner, he was greeted by two rent-a-cop guards, who looked more terrified than they should have been.

“I really hate to do this,” Eliot growled. “Get outta my way.”

The guards glanced at each other before taking a fighting stance pulling out their glocks hesitatingly. Eliot sighed again, before reaching out and swiftly knocking the glocks out of both guards hands. He knocked out one with a firm punch to the face, and the other with a few kicks to the ribs and the temple.

Eliot emptied the guns and slipped the magazines to the floor, before throwing the guns behind him as he continued down the hallway.

Black Lucille 4.0 was parked in the back away from the cameras, with Parker and Tara in the back urging him forward. Eliot jumped into the van, slamming the two doors behind him as Hardison sped Lucille forward onto the Los Angeles streets.

  
  
  


Parker liked Los Angeles better than Portland.

After Sophie and Nate left, the bar felt too big and empty without them. So Parker’s first decision was to move Leverage Consulting and Associates to a warmer, less rainy place: Los Angeles.

Lucille 4.0 pulled up to their new headquarters. The place Parker picked followed the pattern of the others, either above or next to a bar, but this time, she was careful not to be next to any banks. The older red brick building had been built a little over twenty years ago, with their loft workspace above the bar. Eliot picked the menu again here, pouring his heart into the food that was served below them.

They had been in this new place for a little under five years, the longest Leverage headquarters to date. Parker had Hardison send Nate and Sophie their new location right after they moved in, but after their quick note of thanks it was radio silence.

Since the Leverage briefing room and living quarters were above the bar, and sometimes, when there was a game on, or a party for some holiday, Parker could hear the music shake the floor. She loved it. It made her feel warm inside, and it reminded her of Nate, how just his presence made her feel like the room was giving her a hug. He and Sophie got her in touch with her emotions, and the music from below helped her stay in touch with them. It kept Sophie and Nate alive.

Tara collapsed on the black leather couch next to Parker, who had already kicked off her shoes and threw them half heartedly behind her, liking the clank they made as they hit the light grained wood floor,  while Hardison went straight to the fridge for a Squeeze Orange Soda. Eliot sulked in behind them, clearly not pleased with their performance today. He dropped into a chair at the dining table, bowing his head on the table.

“Here you go ladies,” Hardison said, passing Tara a bottled water and Parker an Orange Soda. He sat next to Parker as she leaned into his side, her head on his shoulder.

The three sat in silence for a while, watching the black and white surveillance feed from the bar below.

Parker liked these moments. It seemed to be the only thing that the group did now and when Sophie and Nate were here. She missed these small moments of relaxation before Nate would crack a sarcastic remark while pouring himself yet another drink, or Sophie telling them about the time that she did a con like this.

Parker missed the moments when they were all a family. Now, with the stakes and the tension so high, these moments were becoming less and less relaxing and more and more worrying. Parker hated worrying. She hated everyone acting like this.

But in a way it was her fault. If she would have fought for Nate to stay, if she would have communicated better in those tough first few months, maybe they wouldn’t have done this bad. Maybe they would have been halfway down the black book list by now and maybe they would have had a better routine then this.

Tara then leaned forward and asked, “Who’s that?”

Parker and Hardison looked onto the same screen Tara was, watching a young girl pace back and forth at the entry to the second floor access.

“Hey, Eliot, man, do you know her?” Hardison asked, as he pulled his keyboard from somewhere around the couch.

As Hardison zoomed in on the girl, Parker found her oddly familiar. The way she held herself, the way she walked, the brown wavy locks that ended at her shoulder. She didn’t turn to face the camera for a few minutes. She stood still for a while, then turned to face the camera, and said something that Parker knew was directed for them.

Hardison saw this too, and then proceeded to back up the footage and turning up the volume.

“I know you are here. I need to talk to Parker, Eliot and Hardison. It is urgent.”


	2. Chapter 2

Eliot lifted his head off of the table, hearing the conversation of the rest of the crew. He looked at the screen, and say the still shot of a young girl, who looked oddly like Sophie to him. She had Sophie’s slightly curled brown hair, and looked tall and skinny for her age.

He looked around the room to see the other three arguing, presumably what to do with her. Eliot got up, walking around the table, to stand next to Parker.

“Guys,” he said, his voice having a harshness to it.

“What?” Parker asked.

“Does that look like someone we know?”

Parker, Hardison, and Tara moved closer to the girl’s picture.

“It isn’t that girl from that car dealer con right?” Parker questioned.

“No, babe, she would be around twenty by now. This girl couldn’t be more than twelve,” Hardison noticed, pulling up his facial recognition system. The screen buzzed and geek crap came up, presumably running the girl’s face through the systems.

“She isn’t going to show up,” Eliot sighed. “I don’t think we have seen her before, but doesn’t she remind you of someone?”

The trio stood even closer to the screen, Parker’s head cocking in confusion.

“To me she looks a little like Sophie.” Yes, good job, Parker, Eliot thought. “But she can’t be her daughter right? That would mean she was born, what, ten years ago, when we were still a team,” Parker continued.

Team. There was that word again. The crew hadn’t used that word to describe themselves since Nate and Sophie left. To the four of them, they were everything but a team. They would use any other word --a crew, a group, a squad, a unit, a troop, a gang-- anything but  team.

After that cursed, depressing word was said, the room was blanketed with silence.

“Ok,” Tara started, after finding the silence suffocating, “if she is some how related to Sophie, I think we should talk to her. She obviously is smart, and careful, knowing where Hardison hid the cameras.”

“I’ll bring her back here,” Parker said.

  
  


As Parker stood behind the one way glass doors that Eliot made for the staircase door, she noticed that she was wrong. From a distance this girl did look like Sophie, but up close, the only thing they had in common was their hair. This girls face was tanner, and her nose was much smaller in proportion to her big baby blue eyes. Parker watched as the young girl tucked a strand of hair behind her little ears, only to have the side bang fall back into her face.

The girl, Parker guessed, was closer to ten, and about 4’ 11”, weighing at only about 70 pounds. Parker saw her fingernails were painted a shade of blue that was very similar to a dress she remembered Sophie wearing once. The girl wore a pale blue shirt, with a line of ruffles down the middle, and a pair of dark wash jeans, with blue sneakers on her feet.

Suddenly the girl turned away from the door and muttered something to herself before starting to walk away.

“Hey wait!” Parker yelled, as she threw open the door, causing the girl to turn back to look at her. “You said you needed our help. Why don’t you come up, and we can talk?”

  
  


Tara walked back from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice for the girl who was now situated around their table.

Hardison had out his laptop sitting in between Parker and Eliot on one side of their rectangle table. Tara took the seat next to the girl at the head of the table, a spot where she was near for comfort, but not on the same side of the table as to get awkward.

As soon as Tara sat down, placing the glass in front of the girl, the young brunette opened her mouth to start her story.

  
  


As soon as she talked talking, they all knew that she must somehow be related to Sophie. She had the same accent for one, and the words she used were very carefully and eloquently strung together. When she talked, it was as smooth as silk, causing Eliot to just close his eyes and take in the sweetness.

But unfortunately as she kept talking, Hardison kept clicking his damn fingers across that damn keyboard of his, ruining Eliot's serenity.

  
  


“I really need your help,” the young girl started a few minutes earlier.

“Why don’t you start by telling us your name. Then the story and problem, ok?” Tara softly asked.

“Oh, right. I’m sorry; I forgot about my manners. My name is Leah, and I am ten years old. I came here from San Francisco, after my parents telling me stories about what you guys can do.”

Not anymore, Eliot thought. We hadn’t been able to do anything that they used to in the last five years.

“My parents would tell me how you would take down big corporations and how you were the modern Robin Hood. And you helped people. You are the good guys, my parents said, though I could tell there was much more to this group than that. There was no way that you could do anything like those stories except if you had some bad bone in you.

“But anyways, I believed them. After all they did save me.”

“Save you?” Eliot couldn’t help to interject.

“Oh, yeah. They adopted me about four years ago. They saved me from the system. They also adopted my older brother, but he’s in college now, so I guess he wasn’t really saved. Anyways, my parents are really the reason I’m here. They just had their first biological child three years ago, my new brother, Michael.” She pause here, to take a drinking of the half full glass of orange juice, while Parker tried to discreetly wipe the tear from her eye. Eliot knew that the moment Leah said ‘adopted’ and ‘system’ that Parker was already on board with helping the girl. This was now personal to her.

“My new father was a sober for the first few years I was with them. My mother said how he would drown his sorrows in the bottom of the bottle, and how he was drunk the how time they were dating. He would always correct her and say that he was a functioning drunk.

“My mother said that because they wanted to adopt my bro, he had to sober up, and she knew that he would do anything to allow the state to let us stay with them. And he was doing good. He got a job at and investigative firm, and would try to teach my brother and I how to drive his boat. He got really excited when my mother got her job as an art authenticator, and he was even happier when she told him she was pregnant.

“But about a few months ago, he started drinking again. My mother tried to stop him, but they ended up just yelling at each other, with him always saying how afraid he was to screw up again. He once said how much Michael looked like Sam, someone I don’t know, and then he burst into tears.

“He is almost constantly drunk now, and he got fired from his job because of it. He is yelling a lot now, and I don’t know what he would do to Michael if Michael did something wrong. He said how he worked with you for a while, and I think that if he could just get back to that point in his life, when he was a happy person, it would make him drop the bottle again.

“Can you guys help him?”

The crew all looked at each other, knowing what the next logical question would be, the question that would bring this all together.

Hardison, the quickest to pull away from their little staring match asked Leah, “What is your father’s name?”

The group held their breath as they waited for Leah to answer.

“Nathan Ford.”


	3. Chapter 3

Nathan Ford stood out on his back porch, nursing what could have been his fourth drink. The clear brown liquid sloshed in the cup as he moved his hand over the white railing. Nate could feel the sun hit his hand on its way down to the horizon. He watched as the light pinks and strong orange streaks filled the sky, slowly leaving only the blues and purples behind.

He heard the light click clank of his wife’s shoes across the white wood porch. He listened to her pick up the bottle from the little card table to his left. He saw her reach his hand over his and gently tugging the glass out of his hands. He heard her retreat back into the house, pulling the sliding door shut.

She was back not a minute later, looping her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder.

“She will come back,” Sophie whispered into his shoulder.

“I know, its just, she was so distance before left.”

“You didn’t give her much of a choice. Nate, you were being a little rude to her. I can understand why she had to leave.”

Nate turned so that he faced his wife. “But Soph, she is only ten. She shouldn’t be doing this. She should be here, where we can protect her. She is still a kid.”

Sophie sighed. “I know, Nate. But there isn’t much we can do. She was like this before she came here. We have to give her space. You have to give her space.”

“Oh, Sophie. What have I done?” Silently, Nate lowered his head onto his wife’s shoulder as the sobs started to rack his body. Sophie hoped he found a little comfort in the circles she was rubbing on his back, but she knew there was only a few things that could take away her husband’s pain right now, and this simple act was not one of them.

  
  
  


15 hours before

 

“Don’t you dare accuse me! I saved you! You have no right to say that to me young lady!” Nate Ford yelled down the hallway at Leah. The commotion attracted Sophie to come out of the bedroom, a shocked expression plastered on her face.

“You said you quit! You said you wouldn’t use again! This is how Michael will remember you!” Leah screamed, tears rushing down her face as she stood not even three feet away from her adoptive father. “You’re right, you saved me. But you can’t even save yourself!”

“I know what I am doing! I don’t need saving because I am not a weak pathetic girl like you!”

Leah stood in the cream colored hallway in shock. The tears were steadily coming down her face now, and she didn’t make a move to stop them. She looked back to where Sophie was standing, in the doorway, as shocked at her husband’s words as Leah was. Leah held a glance before sprinting down the hallway and out the front door before anyone could stop her.

“Nate.”

“Sophie don’t,” Nate started as he ran a hand down his face. “I screwed up. I know. I will go after her.”

Nate trudged out the front door, leaving Sophie in the hallway with Michael’s screams intensifying with every passing second.

  
  


Present

 

“I’m sure she will realize that you just said those things in the heat of the moment. I’m sure she’ll come back,” Sophie said to her husband.

“But she has been gone for so long. I need to make sure she is ok. You know the world we live in, nothing is safe. She could be hurt and we don’t know where to even start to look for her,” Nate said, tears slowly ceasing.

“I know baby, I know. And now that this happened I think I should come clean about something,” Sophie said, lowering her head. “Just please don’t be angry with me. I only got the confirmation a week ago. I was waiting for the right time, but now I see that there may never be one.”

“Sophie, you can tell me anything,” Nate whispered, using two of his fingers to tilt Sophie’s head so that her eyes met his. “Why don’t we go inside and talk?”

Sophie nodded slowly, dreading the conversation that was about to occur.

  
  


“Nate Ford??” Hardison screeched.

“So is your new mother Sophie?” Parker questioned.

“Yes. She worked with you guys too right?” Leah questioned.

“Yeah she was for a time. She was a good friend of mine too. Until she ran off with Nate five years ago. Ever since then I have only had short phone calls with her. She spent all her new time with you guys,” Tara said.

“Sorry,” Leah said apologetically.

Tara’s laugh broke the awkward tension in the room. “No, sweetie, it’s not your fault. I can see why Sophie would choose you over me.” Tara lightly pinched Leah’s check, getting a giggle out of the girl.

“So wait. If Nate is trying to be an honest drunk man again, then what are we supposed to do about it? We haven’t had contact with them in five years. What can we do?” Eliot asked the group.

Hardison followed through with,“Well, what do you want us to do, Leah?”

Leah paused for a second, turning to face the trio lined up in front of her. “I want you to restore Nate to his previous state. I want you to fix him.”

“Well, sweetie, it is really hard to ‘fix’ someone, as the only people who can fix them is themselves,” Tara stated. “So I don’t know what we can do. Unless you already have some idea.”

Tara watched as Leah shifted in her seat, trying to cover up her nervousness.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I can see Sophie taught you well, but you still have a lot of practice to go.”

Leah sighed, “I thought, because he was happy working with you guys, he was happy doing whatever it is that you do-which by the way, I would like to know at some point-that maybe if he worked with you all again it would have a sort of intervention effect on him.”

Eliot noticed something strange about this girl. The vocabulary that she was using seemed too big for a ten year old. But she seemed to know what she was talking about, putting Eliot’s mind off of high alert. He still got a bad feeling about her story, that there was something missing, something that would explain the genius child sitting in front of him.

But seeing the hurt and despair in this young girl’s eyes caused Eliot to put the warning bells in the corner for now.

“We’ll see what we can do,” he said. “Let’s go steal a Nate.”

 

**Please leave a comment!!**


	4. Chapter 4

Sophie sighed. She wanted to tell Nate of course, but she was afraid of how he was going to react. This was a big thing, something that she had been hiding for a long time.

She felt a tug on her pant leg, bringing her out of her thoughts. Michael stood at her feet, looking at her with his big sleepy eyes. With everything that was going on she forgot that Michael’s nap was ending about now, and he would probably want food.

The conversation will have to wait, she thought. Oh well.

As she bent to pick up the little boy, she heard the click of the sliding door, indicating that Nate had come inside.

“Hi sweetie!” Sophie cooed. “How was your nap?”

“It was good,” he replied, sleepily.

“Oh, look who’s up!” Nate said excitedly. “Can I get a hug from my big boy?”

“Daddy!” Michael exclaimed, running over to his father. “I am hungry!”

Nate let out a chuckle. “Of course you are.”

“How about I fix you something and you go show Daddy what you did with your cars?” Sophie said to the boy, then whispering in Nate’s ear, “We will talk later.”

“You got it,” he whispered back, placing a small kiss to her cheek as she left for the kitchen.

  
  
  


“You hungry, kid?” Eliot asked Leah who was now seated at their eat-in bar area around the island in the kitchen.

“I really shouldn’t intrude...”

“It’ll be done in fifteen,” Eliot said with a wink. “So what grade are you in?”

  
  
  


Parker, Hardison and Tara could hear Eliot and Leah’s laugh drift from the kitchen to the ‘briefing room’. The three were all staring at the screens that lined the wall in front of them. Hardison was clicking away on his keyboard on the couch, with Parker curled up at his side. Tara sat in the chair to their right, watching the documents that came across the screen.

Nate’s picture was in the top right corner, Sophie’s underneath. Hardison hated doing it, but he was trying to dig up whatever he could on Nate, both before and after Leverage consulting. Financial and phone records, workplaces, everything.

“I got nothing that is standing out, nothing we didn’t already know,” he finally said.

“Check out Leah,” Tara said. “Let’s make sure we check out her story and see if she can help us con the mastermind.”

The clicking continued, more fiercely than before.

“Ok here is her background.

“She was given to the state by her single mother at the age of 13 months. Her older brother, Luca went into the system the same day she did, but he was nine years old at the time. It says in the file that he remembered his mother telling him that she would be back for him and his sister. She had been jumping from foster home to foster home until four years ago. Then a couple under the name Tom and Sarah Jane Baker.”

“Oh! Oh! That is aliases Sophie and Nate used when they were on cons right?” Parker interjected excitedly.

“Yes babe, that’s right. Anyways, Tom and Sarah Jane went through six months of trials and courts before they were granted custody of the then six year old Leah and 15 year old Luca. They have been together ever since.”

“Do we have access to the mother’s record?” Tara asked.

“Access isn’t the problem girl. The problem may be that there is no record of the mother. But I’ll check.”

“Hey Parker! Tara! Do you guys want some?” Eliot's voice rang out across the small area.

“It’s a smoothie! And it’s very good!” added Leah.

“Oo! Me me! I want some!” Parker yelled back as she jumped off the couch, Tara and Hardison following behind her.

“I didn’t call you Hardison,” Eliot said as soon as the trio come into view.

“Man, I want some! You better have saved me some.”

“Dude, does it look liked I saved you some? There are two extra glasses here, one for Parker, one for Tara.”

Leah giggled holding her glass close to her chest with one hand, the other behind her back.

“You have it don’t you?” Hardison said, using the voice he reserved for kids.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Leah replied, trying to keep the smile off of her face.

“Don’t make me tickle you for it!”

“Ok ok! Here!” Leah said, laughing. “Eliot told me to do it.”

“Of course he did. He’ll pay for that later,” Hardison replied with a wink.

“Boys...” Tara started before the group burst into laughter, even Eliot.

  
  
  


“I think he is asleep now.”

“Good, now we can talk,” Nate replied, a little scared of what Sophie wanted to tell him. She seemed a little nervous, and she was really quiet at dinner. Over the past few years she had become easier for Nate to read, finally letting her guard down.

The duo sat next to each other on the old brown leather couch, Nate wrapping his arm around Sophie’s shoulders.

“Please don’t be mad at me,” she started.

“Darling, as long as you are honest with me I won’t get mad at you ok? Now tell me, what is going on?”

“Remember the first time we meet?”

“Yeah it was Paris right? When you were trying to steal that statute.”

“The first David, yes. That is it.”

“Ok what about it?” Nate questioned.

“Well remember how this was long before you got married and you and I had sex?”

“Realy? Do you have to use that word? And yes I remember.”

“Nate are you that much of a child? It is just a word. Sex, sex, sex, s-”

“Ok that’s enough. What does that wonderful night have to do with anything?”

“Well I, uh, realized a few weeks later that I-”

Sophie was interrupted by the phone ringing in the kitchen. Nate got up reluctantly got up to answer it.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hey, uh, Nate? I think we have someone you may be looking for,” Eliot said through the phone.

 

**Please leave a comment!**


	5. Chapter 5

“Ok Hardison. Can we please finish finding the information on Leah’s mother?” Tara asked with a sigh. Eliot had suggested that they call Nate and Sophie, and the two were overjoyed to hear that Leah was safe with them. They were driving down to LA now. Which gave the group about six hours before Nate, Sophie and Michael showed up.

Eliot and Leah were in the kitchen after Leah talked to Nate and Sophie for a good ten minutes. Eliot was preparing some kind of food, and Leah was very eager to learn from him. There was less laughter this time, but Eliot’s teaching voice could be heard from the briefing area.

“Patience woman. I’m trying, I’m trying. I don’t think you guys have enough appreciation for what I do.”

“Hardison, just do. Less talking.”

“Fine, fine. Rude, women,” he murmured to himself. After a few minutes of clicking, “Got something!

“There was in fact records, from the memory of Luca. But they were sealed, which of course wasn’t a problem. It says here that Luca remembers living in Paris for a time, and then in New York City. He said he didn’t have a picture of her, but rather gave the state a thorough description.”

“Does it say a name?” Parker asked.

“Yes. Luca only knew of her first name, she had told them that they didn’t have a last name. He said that her name was Laura.”

  
  
  
  


“Hey you doing ok back there?” Nate asked his son.

“I’m ok Daddy. When do we see Lele?”

Nate smiled at the nickname his son gave Leah. “Soon, buddy, soon. Why don’t you take a nap, it will go faster.”

“Ok Daddy.” Nate could see Michael starting to nod off, taking after his mother and choosing to use the window as a pillow. Sophie sat asleep next to him, making cute little pig snorts with every exhale.

Things will get better, he thought. They have to get better.

 

 

  
  


“Laura?” “Sophie Laura?” Parker and Tara said simultaneously.

“Sophie matches the description.”

Recovering from her shock, Tara asked, “What about the father?”

Click click click. “There is nothing in the file, except what the boy said, which was that his father would be proud and would be back to get them.”

“So if Nate is the father then that changes everything right? Cause I am pretty sure he knew he wouldn’t be acting like this right? He would have so much more to lose,” Parker said.

“If we can find Luca, we should ask,” Hardison replied.

“Can we find Luca? Before Sophie and Nate come in less than six hours?” Tara asked.

“According to the records, Luca is at college at,” Hardison paused, “UCLA. We could be there in less than twenty.”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s gooooo!” Parker yelled, jumping out of her seat and making a run for the door. “Tell Eliot to stay here with Leah,” she shouted across the room. “And you two hurry up!”

  
  
  


“Are you sure this is it?”

“Yes I am sure woman. There is only one UCLA,” Hardison replied back to Tara.

“Ok, here’s the plan guys. Tara and I will go in as federal agents who want to speak to Luca. Hardison you maintain coms and will be our back up if we need any, here in the van.” Over the five years and many failed jobs, Parker’s communication skills were greatly improving.

“Ok got it. Should be easy,” Tara replied.

  
  


“Hello. I’m Special Agent Hagen and this is my partner, Special Agent Carlisle,” Parker started, holding up her ‘badge’ and pointing to herself and Tara. “We are here to see Luca.”

“Luca who? You got a last name to go with that?” the man at the security desk asked.

“Uh, guys, I’m looking but that seems to be sealed so it should take only a few minutes. If you could just distrac-”

“Devereaux. Luca Devereaux,” Tara told the man, interrupting Hardison’s protests.

The man clicked slowly at his computer, before finally saying, “Why do you need him?”

“It is official FBI business. It is on a need to know bases,” Parker jumped in.

“He is in room 412. Down the hall and on the fourth floor,” the man said, clearly not amused.

“Thank you for helping your government,” Parker could help but add as she and Tara walked down the hallway.

The duo strutted down the carpeted hallway, passing groups of teenagers that were holding textbooks, backpacks and of course, cell phones. They reached the elevator and silently rode up to the fourth floor.

Room 412 was located to their right, only a few doors down from the elevator.

“Luca?” Tara shouted while pounding on the door. “Luca, you there?”

“Can I pick the lock?” Parker asked excitedly like a child with a present.

“No, I think I hear him coming.”

The door opened just a crack. “What do you want?” the young man asked.

“This is about your father. We need more information. Your sister came to us for help. We aren’t here to hurt you,” Tara said, trying to win the boy over.

“Did you work with my mother?”

“Yes, we did. She is family,” Parker added.

“Ok, I guess,” Luca said, opening the door wider and gesturing them into the small cramped dorm room. The walls were eggshell color and covered with posters and photos. The photos were no doubt of Leah and Michael, and occasionally Sophie too. There was one photo that looked much older than the rest, a young boy holding a small girl, who didn’t look more than a year old. The two kids were smiling, playing in what looked liked a sandbox. The most recent one was on the nightstand, framed in a dark wooden frame. There was five people in the picture; Nate, Sophie, Leah, Luca, and Michael. Michael was on top of Nate’s shoulders, smiling widely, while Nate was lovingly looking at Sophie. Sophie was next to Nate, holding onto Leah’s shoulders, standing proud tall and elegantly, as usual. Next to Sophie was Luca, who smiling, holding onto what looked like a cotton candy stick.

“What do you need to know?” Luca asked, clearly uncomfortable about the way Parker was looking at the photos in the room.

“We just need to know something things about your and Leah’s biological parents, things that weren’t mentioned in the file from the state,” Tara said, picking up the slack.

“Um, well, Leah and I both have the same parent if that is what you mean.”

“Do you have names?”

“Uh, yeah. But what is this for again?”

“We need to know,” Parker interrupted, “because Leah wants us to help ‘fix’ Nate, and we need to know as much information about her and your family as possible to try to make this work.”

“Oh yeah. So you know that Nate has been drinking again huh?” The women nodded. “According to my mother, Sophie, Leah, Michael and I all have the same parents: her and Nate.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Sophie and Nate Ford?” Parker asked in shock.

“Yeah, why?” the teen replied.

“How could that be possible?”

“Well you see, Parker, when two people lov--” Hardison started.

“Hardison I know how sex works!” Parker said clearly annoyed. Luca looked at her with his head cocked.

“Who did you guys say you were?”

“Oh,” Tara started, “she is Parker, and I’m Tara, and we used to work with your mother.”

“So you guys are in the same line of ‘work’ she used to be in,” Luca asked, making air quotes around the word ‘work’.

“Yes,” Parker said, having finished her argument with Hardison over the coms. “Your sister came to see if we could help Nate and his drinking problem.”

“He’s going to need all the help he can get.”

“We are well aware of that,” Tara said. “So you know Nate is your father right?”

“Yes, I think I told you that already.”

“The big question is: Does Nate know?” Parker asked.

  
  
  


“Nate do you want me to drive?” Sophie asked.

“Sophie we only have a few hours left, and Michael just fell asleep again, and if we stop he will be up again. I’m fine,” Nate whispered. “But in the meantime you could finishing telling me that thing fro earlier.”

Sophie turned away from her husband, her gaze returning back to the window.

She knew she needed to tell him but she wanted to wait. She was still nervous of Nate’s reaction.

“Where did I leave off?”

“Paris. First David.”

“Oh, yes,” Sophie sighed. “Well, as I said, a few weeks later I realized we weren’t as careful as we thought.”

“Wait you mean...” Nate asked softly, glancing over to Sophie in the passenger seat.

“Yes. I was pregnant. But by the time I knew, you were long gone and off getting married. I knew how much you loved Maggie, and I didn’t have the heart to find you and ruin that,” Sophie kept her gaze at the floor of the small car. “So I had the child. I was planning on giving him up for adoption, but once I saw him I knew I couldn’t. Nate, he was gorgeous.

“So we moved out of England and back here to the states. I lived in hiding for a while, trying to be the best mother I could. I went on a few jobs, but only about once a month, and never one that I would be away from child for more than 24 hours. And then we meet again in Tuscany about 7 years later, and well you know what happened.” Sophie looked up to see Nate focused intently on the road, with a tight grip on the steering wheel.

“And well, that time you weren’t with Maggie and Sam had already been gone for a few years, and we made another drunken mistake. That time I found out I was pregnant at about 6 weeks, and by that time you were long gone, and I couldn’t bring myself to find you.

“I had our little girl here in the US, and I never looked back for you. The three of us kept well underground for a long time, until the day you came looking for me to join the team. With you back in the picture for an undetermined amount of time, I couldn’t risk keeping the children. I gave them to the state of Massachusetts.

“It was only until a few weeks after we got married that I started to poke around the state, trying to get information on our children. My search was put on hold when you said you wanted to adopt these two kids who were bouncing around the state.

“I didn’t continue researching until a few weeks ago, when we left Luca at college. He called me mom for the first time, and not Sophie. The state stonewalled me, and they just got back to me a few days ago.”

“Soph,” Nate said softly, turning his head slightly, “are you trying to say what I think you are trying to say?”

“Nate, Luca and Leah are our children, our biological children.”

Sophie turned to face her husband, whose hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. Instead of opening his mouth to yell, he quietly turned on the blinker and pulled over to the side of the highway. He put the car in park, letting his hands slide off the wheel, falling into his lap. His breath could be heard by Sophie, who had turned away from her husband, her eyes glistening.

“Sophie, look at me,” Nate whispered.

Sophie slowly turned her head, her gaze never meeting his waiting eyes.

“Sophie, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I..I didn’t w-want you to re-reject us,” she whispered, betweens gasps of breath, as the tears dripped onto her lap. “I-I thought it was be-better if you ne-never knew than you t-turning away. I couldn’t su-survive that.”

“Come here,” Nate said, opening his arms across the middle arm rest of the car, letting his wife fall into his arms. He cupped the back of Sophie’s neck, using his right arm to stroke her back, whispering soothing consultations as her tears ran onto his shirt.

When he felt her breathing return to normal, and the sniffs come from her, he pulled back and grabbed a napkin from the cup holder between them and gave it to Sophie. He waited until she had cleaned her face and blew her nose before speaking, “Sophie. You should have told me. I would have been there. Granted I am mad at you for not telling me sooner, but this is so important. I would have done so much for them. I wouldn’t have left hem to bounce around homes like that. I would have helped you even though you and I weren’t on the same side then. I am so sorry.

“But are you sure?” Nate said, the softness leaving his voice. “ Do you have any other secrets to exhume now that we are finally openingly talking? You kept this from me for so long, how can I trust you?”

Sophie looked up at her husbands fuming face. He gripped her wrists before hearing Michael stir from the backseat. he quickly released her arms, sight back on the road, and pulling the car from the sidelines back into the light traffic.

 

**Review?**

**Author's Note:**

> Please review!!! Much appreciated!!!


End file.
